


Chess

by lionheartedghost



Series: Team MacGyver [2]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Chess, Fluff, Flufftober, Gen, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-10-27
Packaged: 2021-01-04 22:10:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21204893
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionheartedghost/pseuds/lionheartedghost
Summary: “What?” Jack takes a swig of his beer and looks curiously at them over the top of the bottle. “Is that what?”“MacGyver family heirloom,” Bozer supplies, Mac too preoccupied with setting up the board to respond. “Might even be older than you, Jack.”Mac shares his grandfather's old chess set with his new family.Originally posted on Tumblr.





	Chess

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Flufftober Prompt #17, 'Chess'.

Mac’s had the same chess set since he was eleven years old. It had been his grandfather’s before that, the board folded in the middle and tucked onto the end of a bookshelf, the wooden pieces kept on the desk in a little box with a sliding lid. He’d admired it plenty of times before it became his, running his fingers over the pine, setting up the board and considering it from all angles, brushing his thumb against the smooth surface at the base of each piece. He’d learnt to play with that set, watched his grandfather play against a friend he’d used to work with, committed his tactics to memory, remembered the strategy so he could emulate it later. Then it had found its way to him one Christmas, wrapped in red and white paper, and he had held the box of pieces in his hands as if it were treasure.  
  
“It’s about time I teach you to play properly,” his grandfather had nudged him gently. Mac had beamed.  
  
He’d taught Bozer to play with that set. They’d sat cross-legged on the porch, the board between them as Mac pointed to each piece in turn and demonstrated its movement, talked his friend through the first game, and the second, and the third. Mac always won. Bozer had never quite got the knack of it, but it had made Mac happy, and that had been enough for Bozer to reset the pieces and call for a rematch whenever Mac called checkmate.  
  
Mac had forgotten he had it, in truth, but he’d caught sight of the board poking out of a box at the back of his closet and it had all come flooding back to him.  
  
Bozer watches him come back into the living room. “Man, is that…?”  
  
“Yeah,” Mac grins, laying the board flat on the coffee table. He takes the pieces out next, holding each one in his fingers carefully before setting it down on its square. The board is a little bent out of shape, the label on the wooden box is starting to peel and one of the pawns has a chunk missing out of its base, but that aside it looks just like it did when he was a kid.  
  
“What?” Jack takes a swig of his beer and looks curiously at them over the top of the bottle. “Is that what?”  
  
“MacGyver family heirloom,” Bozer supplies, Mac too preoccupied with setting up the board to respond. “Might even be older than you, Jack.”  
  
“Ha, ha,” Jack narrows his eyes briefly, but there’s a smile on his lips that detracts from any real annoyance.  
  
“Up for a game, Boze?” Mac asks.  
  
Bozer laughs. “You gonna finally let me win?”  
  
“Where would be the fun if I _let_ you win?”  
  
“Just thought it might make a nice change from when we were kids,” Bozer shrugs.  
  
“You _never_ beat him?” Riley raises an eyebrow.  
  
Bozer scoffs. “Have you _met_ him?  
  
“Not ever?” Riley rests her own beer on her knee. “Not even, like, _once_?”  
  
“You think it’s that easy?” Bozer says. “Then you go ahead and play him.”  
  
Mac looks up at her expectantly, his head tilted ever so slightly to one side. Riley thinks it over, tapping her fingers against the glass bottle. She shakes her head.  
  
“I’ve got nothing to prove. No male ego to bolster. I’m fine right here.” She sips her beer resolutely.  
  
“That sounds like my cue,” Jack chimes in. He downs the last of his beer and sets it aside, shifting to the edge of the couch so he can reach the table. “Bring it on, MacGyver.”  
  
“Do you even know how to play chess?” Riley asks. Jack grins.  
  
“Sure I’ll work it out. How hard can it be?”  
  
“You’re gonna beat the guy who hasn’t lost a game in fifteen years by ‘working it out’?” Bozer deadpans. Jack shrugs.  
  
“Good luck working out my strategy when I don’t have one, brother.” He winks at Mac and cracks his knuckles, surveying the pieces in front of him. “Let’s do this.”  
  
‘Family heirloom’, Bozer had called it. Mac watches Jack’s brow furrow every time he makes a move, listens to Riley and Bozer heckling from the sidelines, and decides that ‘family’ is the right word for it. His grandfather might’ve passed, but the last of his family hasn’t, not as long as he has them. And if he has anything to say about it, that won’t change any time soon.  
  
Maybe he’ll convince Riley to play him one day. Maybe he’ll even come around to letting Bozer win. Maybe Jack will eventually learn how to actually play the game.  
  
Mac wins in ten moves.  
  
But maybe one day his family will surprise him.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic meant a lot to me. I hope you enjoyed it! 
> 
> Kudos and comments are always appreciated!
> 
> If you want to leave a prompt or say hi, I'm over on Tumblr [here](http://lionheartedghost.tumblr.com/)!


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